View full sizeLoren Kaiser, 23, drives to the basket while being defended by Dana Schultes, of Montgomery, Dec. 14 during league play in Phillipsburg. Kaiser and company will take on Notre Dame in a high-profile matchup today. Express-Times Photo | STEPHEN FLOOD

Two of the top regular-season girls basketball games in The Express-Times region will be contested today to highlight the holiday season.

Two of the Skyland Conference's best teams will meet marquee squads from the Colonial League and Lehigh Valley Conference. All four programs are undefeated and ranked in The Express-Times region Top 10.

Sixth-ranked Phillipsburg opposes ninth-ranked Notre
Dame in the Easton Rotary Classic semifinals 3:30 p.m. at Easton Area Middle School. Then, No. 3 ranked North Hunterdon travels to play at No. 1 Central Catholic at 6:30 p.m. in a Krah Christmas Classic
semifinal. That game was pushed up an hour from its original starting
time.

Notre Dame (6-0) features the steady hand of senior point guard Lexi McGivern, her actively aggressive classmate Shannon Moran and depth as well. With McGivern ill and out of action against Salisbury last week, sophomore guard Gabby Altmire stepped up and scored a career-high 16 points in a 38-30 victory.

North Hunterdon (4-0) and Central Catholic (7-0) are on tremendous runs -- the Lions since 1999 and the Vikings since, well, 1948. Two of the best coaches in region history collide with rebuilding units in Central Catholic’s Mike Kopp and North Hunterdon’s Tom Hank.

Sophomore guard Alyssa Mack, destined to become the Vikings' 19th 1,000-point career scorer before she’s through, leads a balanced Central squad. North Hunterdon is guard oriented with senior Jill Bellofatto, junior Alicea Foran and sophomore Hailey Stine leading the way. Allison Lane is an athletic 6-foot-1 center and gets inside support from 5-10 sophomore Megan Connor.

I'm going with New Jersey in one prediction and Pennsylvania in the
other. Phillipsburg will make up for last year's loss to Wilson in the Rotary semifinals
with a good showing against Notre Dame.

I'm siding with Central Catholic in the other headliner. The Vikings are tough enough to beat but doing it at fabled Rockne Hall ratchets it up even
another notch.

Looking ahead

Another big day in the regular season comes on Jan. 8. That's when Bethlehem Catholic will host Central Catholic in an LVC affair and North Hunterdon will host Phillipsburg in the first of two Skyland Conference Raritan Division games.

Bethlehem Catholic, seeking its first conference title since 1995, will try to end the Vikings' five-year reign in the LVC. A good showing in this game and the Golden Hawks can get over a big mental hurdle, but that’s all because the conference title will be decided in a four-team playoff in February.

Phillipsburg, which hasn’t beaten North Hunterdon since a certain celebrity chef named Christina Wilson scored a team-high 16 points in a 43-38 victory in 1997, must get by the Lions if it expects to win its first outright division title in the modern era this season. A victory on the road in their first meeting against North Hunterdon could go a long way in making that happen. North has defeated the Stateliners 32 straight times.

Phillipsburg’s schedule is its most ambitious since turning its fortunes around in the past few years. One of the most anticipated regular-season games in the last 25 years comes when perennially nationally ranked Shabazz, the five-time defending Group 2 powerhouse from Newark, travels to Phillipsburg on Jan. 23.

Phillipsburg also plays Holy Spirit (Absecon) and Old Bridge. If that's not enough, throw in the two games against North Hunterdon, which has moved into the Raritan Division, and a mandatory cross-division meeting with Hunterdon Central, which has won 34 of the last 37 games against the Stateliners, though the two haven’t met since the 2009-10 season.

When the postseason arrives, Phillipsburg should be more than battled tested.

So long Lafayette

I’m going to miss covering the Easton Rotary Classic at Lafayette College, John Leone and everyone associated with the tournament at Kirby Sports Center was first class all the way. The NCAA has some pretty stupid rules; not allowing high school kids to experience the thrill of playing on a big stage like Kirby is one of them.

Good-bye losing streak

Catasauqua broke an overall 29-game losing streak behind a combined 22 points from Katie Buczynski and Shiloh Sziy in a 36-29 victory over Lehighton on Dec. 17. Three days later the Rough Riders snapped a 22-game Colonial League skid by defeating Northern Lehigh behind 12 points from Samantha Schnabel.

Newtown, Conn.

In some way every school paid tribute last week to the awful tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Conn. Saucon Valley’s was simple but poignant before its game against Wilson. A very respectful long moment of silence was only pierced by a fidgety child. How appropriate, huh?